the NachtKabarett

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Among the Biblical depictions and references to the Baphomet, the Tetragrammaton, the Tarot and variations on the Shock Logo, the Antichrist Svperstar booklet also included passages from the books of Isaiah and Revelation related to Satan and eternal damnation, and pertaining to Manson's incarnations of the Worm and the Antichrist, previously discussed in The Third And Final Beast article of The NACHTKABARETT.

Antichrist Superstar lyrics page with a passage from Revelation describing Satan's apparition under the form of a seven-headed red dragon, which combined with the lyrics creates a new story and brings light on our Antichrist's empowerment. Note that the first portion of the Book's cut title, "The Rev...", could be a reference to Manson's title of Reverend after his recent ordination among the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in 1994, given that Manson's persona has never been closer to an evocation of this role than it was during his Antichrist Svperstar era.

Besides the mere Satanic connotation of the passage implementing Manson's numerous references to the forces of evil, particularly his later incarnation of The Third And Final Beast, its combination with the lyrics on a red background creates a new narration, situating the Antichrist and its origins in relation to Satan, by identifying him to the mysterious 'man child' of Revelation. Note the quasi-homonymy with our rockstar's borrowed last name and the fact that much like the Beast of Revelation, Daniel's Little Horn, and Manson himself through his Nuremberg-esque performances, the man child is depicted as a powerful and despotic ruler. Remarkably, the theme of devouring which Manson would continue to use and abuse until recently, is already present here.

Detail from Antichrist Svperstar's booklet with Manson incarnating the worm, writhing and changing shapes, and whose Biblical nature is revealed to us through a passage from the book of Isaiah (mechanically repeated in Mark 9:44, 46 and 48) superimposed with the lyrics of 'Deformography', actually a reminder of the eternal and dishumanizing pain awaiting for the damned in Hell.

Although the inclusion obviously reinforces Manson's prominent Nietzschean theme of the worm in his lyrics and imagery, as a stage zero of the Antichrist/Angel's transformation, this particular passage of the Old Testament evokes the worm more as an image expressing the eternal, dishumanizing suffering and torments of Hell, and to describe the painful state and vile appearance of the damned after the judgment, their deformation/deformography/obscenity and regression as they writhe in pain. The account can also relate to the separation between the "horrible/abhorring" and "beautiful" people in Manson's eponymous song. The subliminal highlighted portion "their worm shall not die" clarifies the point, and also recalls the mechanical repetition of remarkably similar scriptures in three verses of the New Testament describing Hell (and originally intertwined with the verses evoked in our "Amputation of Sin" article) :

However, Manson's primary interpretation of the worm as a metaphor of man's lowest state is nevertheless also present in the Bible:

The metaphor is also present in the Psalms, where David compares a believer whose faith is tested by torture to the most miserable of all creatures, which also transcendentally anticipates the sufferings of Christ :

S e e   a l s o   o n   T h e   N A C H T K A B A R E T T :

THE THIRD & FINAL BEAST - THE ANTICHRIST | Marilyn Manson's successive incarnations of Satanic beasts from the Biblical prophecies including The Red Dragon, under the Third and Final Beast (of Revelation) title, also presenting an interresting view on the worm's transformation into the Angel/Antichrist/Hydra.

"When the boy is still a worm it's hard to learn the number seven" Marilyn Manson, Cryptorchid.
"The Angel has spead its wings..." Marilyn Manson, Cryptorchid & Antichrist Superstar.

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LITTERARY VICES - FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE | "You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape." Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, prologue.

"The whole metamorphosis theme really comes from my studies in Social Darwinism. There's been the theory of man as a worm that then transforms into an ape, and finally into a man. [...] I wouldn't say anything inspired it other than things I've read -- the ones I've mentioned and books like Antichrist by Nietzsche." MM, Guitar World, December 1996

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